Gates And Bridge, Boundary Walls, Bonaly Tower, 65 Bonaly Road, Bonaly, Edinburgh

An 18th-century farmhouse extensively developed through the 19th century into a picturesque Scottish baronial complex, now converted to five flats. The original farmhouse forms the northwest wing. In 1836, William Henry Playfair added a commanding central tower and east range. In 1874, David and John Bryce remodelled the farmhouse, adding a third storey and decorative bartizans (corbelled corner turrets). In 1888–89, Sydney Mitchell and Wilson contributed a library wing to the south. The building was converted to flats in 1946 by Stewart Kaye and Partners.

Architectural Overview

The tall Playfair wing dominates the centre: a square-plan, four-storey crenellated tower with rounded corners, accompanied by a four-stage, square-plan crow-stepped staircase tower to the west. A five-storey circular turret with attic and dormers projects to the south. A single-storey service courtyard extends to the east. The Sydney Mitchell wing to the left is two storeys with attic, crow-stepped, and features bartizans and a projecting bay to the west. The former farmhouse to the northwest stands three storeys with crow-stepped gable and bartizans.

The masonry varies throughout: roughly dressed coursed rubble to the Playfair towers; random rubble to the east wing; squared, coursed rubble with droved ashlar dressings to the original farmhouse; and crisp, squared, bull-faced, snecked rubble with polished ashlar dressings to the south wing. An eaves course runs along the farmhouse, while the south wing has a first-floor cill course, eaves cornice, and dentiled string courses to the bartizans. Long and short ashlar quoins feature on the farmhouse and south wing. The farmhouse has droved ashlar window margins; the south wing displays roll-moulded window architraves and long and short ashlar quoins to smaller windows. Stone-finialled gablet-headed dormers break through the eaves on the farmhouse and Playfair wing; timber dormers punctuate the south wing.

South (Entrance) Elevation

The south elevation forms an L-plan, with the Playfair wing at centre, the service wing to the right, and the Sydney Mitchell wing advanced to the left. The Playfair wing presents a timber-boarded studded door with decorative cast-iron door furniture set in a roll-moulded and corniced architrave frame within an advanced central circular tower topped by a conical roof and lightning conductor. Two windows flank the door, with irregular fenestration above and four finialled dormers to the roof.

The main tower-house recesses to the right. A ball-finialled, dog-legged forestair leads to a glazed timber door at first floor of the round tower, with stone balusters at the lower flight. A bronze profile of Lord Cockburn sits over the door. The round tower has two bipartite mullioned windows at first floor, a large transomed and mullioned window at second floor, two small windows at the top floor, and an ashlar-coped crenellated parapet corbelled out at roof level.

The square staircase tower recesses to the left of the circular tower. It features a bipartite transomed and mullioned window from 1888 at the first stage, a staggered bipartite window with stained glass from 1888 at the second stage, and a dormer to the attic.

The east wing presents a long coped wall with regularly spaced urns on raised plinths (with a lean-to roof behind) and four windows. The Sydney Mitchell wing has a crow-stepped gable to the south with a French door at ground floor, a window at first floor in an advanced, corbelled, architrave frame, and a plain window to the gable apex. Two decorative bartizans corbel out from ground floor, each with a tall window and short window above at first floor. A timber-boarded door occupies the right bay of the right return, with a transomed, mullioned window above, a window at ground to the left, and a swept dormer to the attic.

West (Garden) Elevation

The crow-stepped gable of the former farmhouse stands to the left, with off-centre windows at first and second floors, small bartizans corbelled out at second floor, and a gablehead stack. The right return is irregularly fenestrated with two large gabled dormerheads. The Sydney Mitchell wing to the right features a central advanced crow-stepped gable, slightly corbelled out at first floor, irregularly fenestrated, with a bipartite dormer to the right return. Symmetrical flanking bays each have a single window at ground, a bipartite transomed and mullioned window at first floor, and a small dormer to the attic. A link-bay to the left is irregularly fenestrated.

North (Rear) Elevation

The irregularly fenestrated Playfair wing occupies the centre, with a large transomed and mullioned window at second floor. The former three-bay farmhouse adjoins to the right, with a glazed timber door at centre flanked by windows, regular fenestration to the first floor, and gabletted dormers to the central and left bays flanking a shouldered stack. The service wing advances to the left with a ball-finialled coped wall, a half-glazed timber-boarded door, two windows to the left, and five windows to the right.

East (Side) Elevation

This elevation faces the service courtyard. A central crow-stepped gable incorporates earlier stonework at the apex dated 1642 over a round-arched gateway. Flanking ashlar-coped walls have ball-finials at the corners.

Materials and Details

Timber sash and case windows throughout have predominantly 12-pane and 4-pane glazing. The roofs are graded grey slate, with fish-scale slates to the Bryce bartizans. Coped and corniced stacks have plain or octagonal cans. Cast-iron downpipes with decorative hoppers include one hopper to the north dated 1866.

Interior

The interior was sympathetically divided into five flats and retains many original features, including numerous fireplaces and most interior timber-panelled doors.

The entrance hall has a cornice and small square flagstones. A broad, stone, newel staircase with mahogany baluster to the top flight features two stained glass windows depicting armorial bearings; the upper window shows the English lion and the Scottish unicorn.

The former dining room, in the first-floor flat by Playfair, has deep cornice, plaster ceiling decoration, plaster panelling and dado, picture rail, timber-panelled shutters, and an original black slate chimneypiece with cast-iron grate.

The former drawing room, in the second-floor flat by Playfair, has plaster cornice and dado, and a fireplace with original tiled grate and later marble mantelpiece. A small alcove off the drawing room contains an original fireplace with cast-iron grate, tiled inside, and marble mantelpiece, with a marble-framed glazed cabinet over the mantelpiece featuring a scrolled broken pediment.

The library has fitted glazed bookcases with cupboards below, timber panelling elsewhere, and a plaster cornice with gilded oak-leaf motif. Timber-panelled doors at the north end sit in gothic-style doorpieces with crocketted pediments. The beamed timber ceiling covers a large roll-moulded sandstone ingleneuk with gothic capitals and corbels. The roll-moulded, shouldered fireplace has red glazed brick cheeks, a cast-iron grate, and a timber mantelpiece with tile insets. Tapestry panels above the fireplace depict figures in Elizabethan dress. A small closet off the library is completely tiled with delft tiles, probably installed around 1905.

A light well between the stair tower, library wing, and old farmhouse is lined with white glazed bricks. The top flat has a window pane in the south dormer of the turret signed "John McGregor, 1859". Entrance to the roof passes through a timber-panelled door with screw lock in a thistle-finialled, gabled doorpiece.

Gates, Gatepiers and Boundary Wall

Cast-iron gothic-style two-leaf gates sit between cast-iron gothic-style, crown-capped and finialled octagonal gatepiers. Adjacent footgate and spear-headed railings complete the entrance. A coped sandstone rubble boundary wall runs alongside. The gate lodge is not listed.

Garden Terraces, Steps, Gates and Statuary

Stone steps with ashlar copes and ball finials lead to grassed terraces. A decorative wrought-iron gate opens to an enclosed garden. An arched rubble gateway has key-blocked arched recesses containing statues of Sir James Douglas (to the left) and Robert the Bruce (to the right). Inscriptions over the recesses read "My King And Country Ever Claimed / Those Marshall Deeds For Which I'm Famed" and "I Scotland's Glorey Made Returne / Victoriously At Bannockburn". A decorative wrought-iron gate stands to the rear of the garden between plain coped rubble gatepiers.

A small, heavily overgrown rubble carriage-bridge crosses the Dean Burn near the gate lodge. A statue of Shakespeare sits in a curved recess in the boundary wall at the west end of the garden—the only statue of Shakespeare in Edinburgh, salvaged from the demolition of the Theatre Royal in Shakespeare Square in 1860. Numerous other pieces of decorative stonework populate the garden, including several urns, two decorative bird-baths, and a plaque depicting Edinburgh Castle.